“Ask yourself this. Do you believe Juliet will be happier with Lord Boggs than she would be with you? Because that’s Boggs is headed, and she isn’t in any position to refuse him.”
Barnaby didn’t wait for an answer, but slipped out the door, leaving Miles alone.
He slunk lower in his chair, clasping his half-empty bottle of port to his chest, but somehow it slipped through the crook of his elbow and dropped onto the floor.
He peered over the arm of his chair, and watched the ruby red river streaming across the pale cream and blue Aubusson under his feet, then slumped back with a sigh. “Bollocks.”
ChapterThirteen
“Juliet, dearest, come and sit here next to me, won’t you?” Lady Fosberry patted the empty place beside her on the narrow settee she’d commandeered, a claw-footed monstrosity done in a rather sickly canary-colored satin stripe.
Canary satin stripe, of all things, and a pure punishment to sit upon, rather like one of the dreaded pews at St. Peter’s Church in Hambleden. But Juliet did as Lady Fosberry bid her, hiding a wince as the hard wood commenced with torturing her backside.
“Now, Lady Drummond, if you’d be so good as to take the seat beside Miss Templeton, with Lady Cora in the chair just there, I’ll have nothing more to wish for.”
A distressed little grunt escaped poor Lady Drummond as she squeezed onto the settee, and was rewarded for her trouble with an accidental jab in the ribs from Juliet’s elbow.
“There!” Lady Fosberry beamed at them. “Isn’t this cozy?”
Juliet offered Lady Drummond an apologetic grimace. “I daresay you’d be more comfortable sitting on my lap, my lady.”
“Now, you mustn’t think of it, Miss Templeton.” Lady Drummond patted her hand. “We can’t leave you at Lord Boggs’s mercy all evening, worrying you with his pointed attentions.”
“No, indeed. We saw quite enough ofthatat dinner. I don’t know what he’s doing here, but I don’t like it. I must impress upon you how very much I disapprove of him, Juliet, and I’ve no doubt your sisters will, as well.”
“Yes, my lady.” If Juliet hadn’t drawn that conclusion the first time Lady Fosberry felt the need to impress it upon her, she certainly had the second, third, and fourth times.
“That dreadful smirk of his!” Lady Drummond shuddered. “Why, who does the man think he is?”
“Very high in the instep, that one. I can’t countenance him.” Lady Fosberry shot a dark look at the drawing room door, so Lord Boggs might not sneak up on her unawares. “Why, he put me right off my raspberry puffs, and you know how I adore raspberry puffs, Juliet.”
“Well, you’ll be safe enough there, Miss Templeton.” Lady Cora gave Juliet a sympathetic smile before stealing a furtive peek at the door. “How long do you suppose the gentlemen will be at their port this evening?”
“I’ve a notion they’ll be quicker than usual.” Juliet raised a knowing eyebrow at Lady Cora. “For a moment when we left the table, it looked as if Lord Barnaby was going to come with us, didn’t it, Lady Drummond?”
Lady Drummond laughed, and Lady Cora flushed up to the roots of her hair. “You’re a dreadful tease, Miss Templeton.” But her gaze remained pinned on the door, and she wore a dreamy smile on her lips that left little doubt as to the state of her heart.
I did that.
She hadn’t, of course, not really. Lady Cora and Lord Barnaby had done it, but she’d helped them along, and as was always the case when one exerted oneself on behalf of a friend, she’d helped herself at the same time, too. It did wonders for her own wavering faith in love to see such a besotted smile on Lady Cora’s face.
Still, as the evening stretched on, her optimism began to fade. Neither Lord Barnaby nor Lord Cross appeared in the drawing room with the rest of the gentlemen, and Lady Cora, who’d been so filled with anticipation only moments before deflated like a punctured hot air balloon.
As for Lord Boggs, he was visibly annoyed to find two glowering ladyships flanking her on either side, and took no pains to hide it. He huffed and muttered and glared, Lady Cecil and her nieces whispered and glared, Lady Fosberry and Lady Drummond sniffed and glared—all this while Lord and Lady Kimble’s daughters displayed their musical skills by nearly pounding the pianoforte into dust.
At last, she managed to escape by pleading a headache, and was dragging herself up to her bedchamber when Lord Barnaby appeared at the bottom of the stairs and called up to her. “I beg your pardon, Miss Templeton, but there’s something I’d like to show you, if you’re not too fatigued.”
Shewasfatigued, her exhaustion a gnawing ache that had sunk into the very depths of her bones, but she was fond of Lord Barnaby, and he was so very earnest in his appeal, she couldn’t refuse him. “Yes, of course, my lord, if you wish.”
He bounded up the stairs and led her to the long, wide corridor on the second floor that served as Steeple Cross’s portrait gallery. There weren’t many paintings here, as most of the family portraits were hung in the grand gallery at the country seat in Kent, but even from such a small sampling of faces, one couldn’t help but notice the Cross ancestors were a trifle… glum?
By glum, she meantgrim, each frozen countenance more disapproving than the last, and the countesses weren’t much better than the earls. Goodness, was it necessary for aristocrats to be so joyless? Two dozen faces, and not a single smile amongst them.
“The Winthrop family are a somber lot, aren’t they?”
“Would you call themsomber, Miss Templeton?” Lord Barnaby paused beside a portrait of a pinched-looking gentleman in a coat stiff with heavy gold braiding, who was glaring down upon them from a heavy, dark frame. “I’d call them terrifying, but I imagine you’re too polite to use such a word.”
“Perhaps, but I wouldn’t call them welcoming, either.” She strolled down the long, wood-paneled corridor, eying the former Earls of Cross as she passed, but so many pairs of dull, dark eyes following her soon became unnerving, so she turned her attention to the intricately-carved gilt frames instead, uncertain whether to admire them, or pity the poor housemaids doomed to eliminate every speck of dust from the tiny curls and spirals.
